Jason Reich author page
1 puzzle by Jason Reich
with Jeff Chen comments
| O | S | L | O | A | T | B | A | T | M | E | M | E | ||
| R | I | E | N | R | O | A | C | H | O | V | A | L | ||
| A | R | A | B | E | L | I | T | E | L | E | G | O | ||
| L | I | F | E | A | N | D | L | I | M | B | O | |||
| I | R | O | N | S | I | T | S | O | N | |||||
| F | I | N | E | T | O | O | T | H | C | O | M | B | O | |
| F | A | N | G | S | N | E | E | V | A | I | N | |||
| L | I | C | O | C | T | A | R | C | L | S | U | |||
| O | L | A | S | A | R | F | H | E | L | P | S | |||
| J | U | S | T | P | L | A | I | N | D | U | M | B | O | |
| O | P | E | R | A | C | H | I | R | P | |||||
| A | L | I | T | T | L | E | L | A | M | B | O | |||
| C | A | I | N | S | H | I | F | T | T | O | O | N | ||
| B | L | O | G | N | O | V | A | E | H | E | D | Y | ||
| D | A | N | E | T | R | E | N | D | S | T | Y | X |
You might think that this is a humdrum "letter addition" puzzle. Tack on an O to produce kooky results? O boy, here we go again ...
O no, not so! Jason tightened up his idea by always
- adding the O onto an MB,
- doing that at the end of a word, and
- placing the resulting word at the end of a phrase.
I don't like tightness for its own sake, because it can feel random if there's no rationale for why it's done, but today's effort makes the solve so much more enjoyable. Those end placements highlight and emphasize LIMBO, COMBO, DUMBO, and LAMBO.
Our Replacement Finder (with "MB" in the first box and "MBO" in the second) shows the possibilities. Neat that Jason was able to apply his rules and still achieve four amusing results. Beautifully tight.
Given today's competitive landscape, with the NYT's acceptance rate at about 4%, standards have skyrocketed. It's great for solvers, who won't see nearly as much of the LIC TRA stuff in the future. With four themers whose lengths are easy to work with, I expect four great bonuses plus a silky-smooth grid.
No doubt, that's a fine-toothed combo.
Seven-letter slots can be hard to squeeze juice from. ON BEING didn't stand out initially, but I enjoyed reading up on this radio show. BAILS ON is much better than most add-a-preposition phrases because of its slangy nature. I used to think MOLOTOV was on fire, but given the Russian invasion … All in all, a decent but not outstanding level of grid spice.
Simple letter-addition themes can feel just plain dumb these days, so I appreciate all of Jason's efforts to make his concept stand out.